Industry Reviews
"Grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go . . . it’s as scary as hell." - New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson
“Thrilling.” —Thom Racina, national bestselling author of Deadly Games and Never Forget
From Publishers Weekly
Performance seminars have long been the bane of the corporate world, yet few authors have explored them in fiction to the candid degree that Brooks (Darkness Bound) does here. The first third of this addictive thriller introduces Brad Teeters, Mark Johnson and Pamela Wiley, three dedicated yet bitter senior employees at Wright & Wong, a successful Seattle-based ad agency. When the trio propose to buy out the firm, Wong agrees, stipulating that all three employees must first attend The Seminar, a week-long retreat for executives at a secluded site in northern California. In detailed prose, Brooks captures the first 60 hours of The Seminar, during which facilitators simulate airplane crashes and hostage takeovers in an effort to teach inner strength and trust. But when one of The Seminar's mind games goes awry, Teeters, Johnson and Wiley become unwittingly ensnared in an evil scheme masterminded by Wong and Beth, Teeters's sexy, manipulative wife. Beth, who up to this point has been a secondary character, becomes the focal point of an intricate conclusion involving betrayed friendships, apparent suicides and kinky sex games. A master of terror and suspense, Brooks crafts his characters with care, lending them opaque dimensions that make them appear both sympathetic and loathsome.
"An absolute must read, Deadly Faux is guaranteed entertainment. In Wolfgang Schmitt, Larry Brooks has created a wise-cracking protagonist who is witty, resourceful, intelligent, and, most surprisingly, vulnerable. Brooks plunges Wolf into a seemingly unwinnable caldron involving Las Vegas casinos, the mob, and femme fatales, then turns the heat up high. I finished Deadly Faux in one sitting, couldn’t put it down, and can’t wait to read the next book. Step aside Nelson DeMille and Stuart Woods—Schmitt happens!" —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Jury Master, for Deadly Faux
“Crime novelist Raymond Chandler was widely acknowledged in his day as the Poet Laureate of The Dark Side (he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake). He died in 1959 and ever since there have been many pretenders to his throne. Among the best are James M. Cain, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, James Lee Burke—all masters of the craft, all wordsmiths of the first order, but none of them had Chandler’s gifts. After half a century of being on the lookout for a crime fiction writer with a voice that rivals Chandler’s, one has finally appeared, quietly chugging his way up the bestseller lists with Darkness Bound, Whisper of the Seventh Thunder, Serpent’s Dance, and Bait and Switch. His name is Larry Brooks. The guy has a slick tone and a crackling, cynical wit with lots of vivid descriptions (of both interior and exterior landscapes), and the sparkling figures of speech dance off the page and explode in your inner ear. Though as modern as an iPad 5S, he is truly and remarkably Chandleresque. He’s dazzling. Check out his new one, Deadly Faux—it’s sexy, complex, intelligent; a truly delightful novel with more plot twists than a plate of linguine swimming in olive oil.” —James N. Frey, author of How to Write a Damn Good Novel, for Deadly Faux
